Bing Search Engine Traffic Passes Yahoo

Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing is making its way up in the ranks of search engines. While comScore’s December 2011 data shows that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) still dominates the market with 65.9% of queries, Bing overtook Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) coming in second with 15.1%. Yahoo’s share fell from 15.1% in November to 14.5%. AOL’s (NYSE:AOL) search engine traffic declined 8% to just 1.6% and Ask.com (NASDAQ:IACI) also accounted for about 2% of queries.

TechCrunch cited Citi analyst Mark Mahaney, who said that this is the first month that Bing has overtaken Yahoo. Bing and Yahoo reached an agreement in 2009 that would allow Yahoo to be powered by Bing’s search technology. Yahoo began using the new technology in August, but the complete transition won’t be complete until 2012.

Because Bing powers Yahoo, both sites are powered by the same technologies, but Yahoo traffic is declining, contributing to the ever-growing list of headaches for Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson. “Scott Thompson has his work cut out for him,” said Mahaney.